The Significant Minority
by The Significant Minority
Summary: First competition up- What do you get when you put four overly excited girls together for an afternoon? Well, a whole series of events that trigger a competition to seek out the Significant Minority, of course! Guidelines explained in story.


**A/N: Hi guys! Well… we've decided to update a lot of stuff about our competition, so we decided, "Heck, why not just write a whole new story to explain it?" Things are kind of clearer here. The guidelines, rules and information that are important are bolded. Also, we managed to summarise everything in a clear way. Tell us what you think. Hope you join! ;)**** Oh yes- PLEASE vote on our poll on our profile, even if you don't want to join. It'll help us lots. Thank you!**

"Quick! Quickity quick quick! Hand me _the book_," Coline instructed, excited. "No, not that one- uh, the sixth one. Yep! Thanks a mil!"

Vanessa, who was closest to the bookcase, handed over 'In Too Deep', the sixth book of the 39 Clues. They were at Coline's house and were astounded by the messiness of her bedroom, excepting, of course, her bookcase, which had all her favourite books neatly stacked in rows. Her 39 Clues books were all placed in ascending order of the books, from first to tenth, then followed by all four card packs and finally, the Agent Handbook and the Black Book of Buried Secrets.

All three of them had been chatting animatedly about school and everything in between while pursuing their own hobbies- such is the prowess of the girl mind at multi-multi-tasking (number of 'multi's intended)- Vanessa was reading one of her favourite books, Valerie was giving her fingers a good workout on an iPodTouch playing with her virtual puppy, and Coline was reading fanfiction.

Vanessa and Valerie looked at their crazy friend, perplexed. Granted, she had always been easily excitable, but right now she was practically juggling her mouse, her book and the laptop in eagerness to try and sort out everything.

"Uh…" Valerie decided to ask the obvious question. "What are you doing?"

"Trying to find which minor scene in the 39 Clues book this fanfic's about," she explained. "I love fanfics like these!"

"Hmm, yeah, me too!" Vanessa agreed. "It's kind of hard to find good ones though."

"Could there be a way to do it?" Valerie muttered. She paused for a while to think and her virtual puppy cocked its head, wondering why its owner wasn't paying attention to it.

Coline scrolled down the page.

"It doesn't seem likely…" Coline replied. "Unless we… hey! I know!" her face immediately brightened up. "We could have a competition!"

Vanessa pondered this for a moment or two. "What are we supposed to do?"

"Like the contestants," Valerie further explained.

"Well..." Coline trailed off, summarizing her thoughts. "To put it simply, contestants should **take a scene from the books and elaborate on it**, or maybe even** kind of change it or re-write it**!"

"That sounds really confusing," Valerie told her. She exited from the game and played around at the home page, rearranging apps as she fiddled about, paying more attention to their conversation now.

"Anyway," Vanessa added, "wouldn't that affect the story? I mean, if you rewrote it in an entirely different manner, the rest of the events might not happen in the following books."

"Yeah, that could totally change the whole outcome of the series," Valerie chipped in.

"True," admitted Coline. "But it wouldn't really be a problem if we ensured that if the person changed it, then that person would have to make sure that the **said change wouldn't alter too much of anything after that, and that the rest of the story would remain more or less the same**. I think."

"Is that it? That sounds kind of boring," Vanessa admitted. "Maybe you should have different sub-categories or something like that."

"I know!" Coline's face lit up. "**You can write it in a different format**! But before I go onto that, the fanfic could **be a memory and someone reflecting on it** and such, or also someone who was there and **thinking in the spur of the moment**, if you know what I mean. So you can represent that in a **different format**, like I've already said, like in** poem style** or something, **and even in free verse**! It would really get your creative juices spiced up."

The three were really getting excited now. Their boundless enthusiasm took hold of the idea. They put aside whatever they were doing- Coline closed her internet browser, Vanessa shut the book, and Valerie pressed the 'Off' button on the iPodTouch and left it on Coline's study desk- which she hardly did any studying at, to be truthful. They made themselves comfortable on the floor and faced each other.

Suddenly, they heard a sound that sounded suspiciously like '_Mrrp'_.

"Uh…" Valerie looked around awkwardly. "I don't want to sound crazy and all…"

"… but did we just hear Saladin?" Coline finished. "I better stop reading too much of the 39 Clues. I'm starting to get hallucinations or whatever the hearing equivalent of it is. What next? I see Dan's face in ninja movies?"

"You don't watch ninja movies," Vanessa pointed out.

"True, but it's just an example, I guess," Coline shrugged. "So… the Saladin noise…"

"I heard it too," Vanessa said nervously. "I don't see how a cat could get into your bedroom, though."

Coline laughed.

"It's a long story- I'm not sure if I told you before, but once I saw a cat come out from my balcony and stroll out the door," she said. "Well… maybe we just heard… uh, a sign! Yeah! A sign! A sign that Saladin wants us to include him!"

"How the blazes are we supposed to do that?" Valerie asked skeptically.

"Well… it's an interesting thought," Coline muttered, "but how about we kind of do something else that gives him an opportunity to shine? Like… well, you could **write the scene from a different point of view** or something!"

"One that could even be Saladin's!" Vanessa finished. She laughed. "It could even be a stranger, like a non-Cahill or something, right? That would be so funny- they'd be like, totally clueless!"

"How about a Vesper?" Valerie hissed. They looked around, slightly warily. "That would be really creepy."

"You said it," Coline nodded. "The thought gives me the chills. A family… greater than the Cahills? Pssh. They must be really scary."

The three shivered involuntarily.

Ding dong, ding dong.

The three jumped.

"Who could that be?" Coline asked worriedly. "Hey- I don't have a doorbell!"

Valerie and Vanessa turned to face nowhere in particular.

"This is purely a work of fiction. We are sorry for all reality inaccuracy."

"Right," Coline muttered, confused. "Let's go see who it is."

The three tiptoed- rather unnecessarily- to the door. Coline, the tallest, looked through the peephole. As soon as she saw who it was, her shoulders, which had been tensed up, relaxed in relief. She flung open the door.

"Solina!" the three chorused.

The mentioned girl beamed at them. She was holding up a sign advertising some product and wearing one of those advertisement boards you slip over your head.

"I was just out, well, as you can obviously see, advertising for _," Solina explained. "It's really fun. I can be really persuasive," she joked.

Valerie and Vanessa turned to face nowhere in particular again.

"Please fill in the blank with product or brand of choice," they said in a creepy monotone. Then they whipped back, all normal again.

"Why are they doing that?" Solina whispered to Coline, her eyebrows scrunched up in worry and confusion.

"I have no idea," Coline whispered back. She cleared her throat and began speaking louder. "Anyway… I just got an idea!"

"We could have **Solina advertising** for us!" Valerie read her mind. "Since we need as much people to join and such…"

"Uh… for what?" Solina looked confused.

"We're sure you'll say yes," Vanessa grinned. "We'll fill you in later when we take a video to summarise everything and post it on YouTube."

"Hey, what?" Coline's jaw dropped. "YouTube? Seriously? Isn't that a teeny weeny bit too drastic?"

"Fine," Vanessa sighed dramatically. "We'll just take the video, that's all. How about that? It'll be for our easy reference and stuff."

Coline nodded and they pulled a flustered Solina into the apartment and into Coline's bedroom. They took up their previous positions again.

"Hey, you know," Valerie remarked. "This is all really cool. How about we create a series of competitions under different themes and in different styles? That would be really awesome!"

"That would be awesome," Coline nodded. "We'll create an account!"

"Nah, why don't we just use an old one that nobody's using anymore?" Vanessa suggested. "It's kind of a form of recycling, right?"

"Right!" Valerie agreed.

Solina had retreated into a corner, but she was listening. Something about a competition? In no time, she put two and two together.

"You want me to advertise for a competition? Or your joint account or whatever?" she voiced aloud, still slightly confused. Of course, there was that little matter of what this competition was about, but at least she got the gist.

"You'll be part of our group too!" Coline cheered, doing a little somersault. "Oh, wait. Now I kind of know what Valerie and Vanessa were on about. This is so fiction. I could never somersault in real life-"

"Anyway," Solina interrupted. "So… we should change the email and password, yeah? Let's make it simple and easy, but safe, of course. We don't want any hackers!"

"Wait! What do we call ourselves?"

The four stared at each other, flabbergasted. The thought hadn't even crossed their minds!

"Well… what's this competition really about?" Solina asked. "That should help a little."

"It's about bringing out a minor scene, I guess," Vanessa said. "And making it seem important…"

"And the series of competitions is kind of about identifying good fanfics via competitions, or something, right?" Valerie added.

"So…" Coline trailed off. Her face brightened again. "How about, 'The Significant Minority'? That fits, doesn't it?"

They all hi-fived and started to scribble down a few ideas on paper for their joint account's email and password. Finally, they combined them to make a relatively safe yet easy to remember password and email, which would be one of their sworn and best-kept secrets.

_Snicker. Ahem._

"Uh, what was that?" Valerie asked.

"Let's ignore it," Coline decided. "I mean, it's just like that "Mrrp" we heard, I guess."

"You heard Saladin?" Solina demanded. "Where's he?"

Vanessa sighed.

"Uh, nothing," she replied. "It was just some hearing illusion or something. Let's move on, shall we?"

"Let's divide the job," **Coline** suggested. "I'll **handle queries**, I guess. I'll even **create an FAQ which I'll post on my section on our profile**! And **Solina will advertise** for the competition, as we've already said."

"I'll keep **track of the stories which are being submitted," Vanessa** volunteered. "Hey, why don't we have **a community**? Then we could just **add story entries to the community**. That would make things more organised and stuff."

"Cool," **Valerie** grinned. "So… I'll **keep track of who's joining**, then?"

"Mmhmm," Coline nodded. "Now… uh, who knows how to work a video camera?"

"Let's have Solina do it," Valerie suggested. "You know, since she won't have to participate in the video much."

They all agreed. Coline dug out a video camera and handed it to Solina, who explored a little with it as the rest got ready.

"Keep on smiling, smiling, smiling," Coline mutter out of the corner of her mouth.

"Isn't that from 'Nemo' or something?" Vanessa asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Uh, you mean when Dory was singing it? Kind of, but she said 'swimming'," Coline replied.

"And… action!" Solina called out.

"Uh… what was our script again?" Valerie murmured to the others.

"We didn't prepare one!" Coline cried out frantically. "Cut! Cut! Cut!"

After that awkward moment, the four of them quickly planned out everything. The details they had forgotten about previously, they quickly thought of them. They made sure to include everything necessary- who was who, who did what, what the competition was about, what you could do with your story entry and extra information like the due date and the prizes.

"Action!" Solina called out. Again.

"Hi everyone!" Coline greeted, abnormally cheerily. "This is Coline here. Well, we're part of the Significant Minority, a group which uh, hosts a series of competitions…uh…" here she faltered and looked down at her cue cards. "Oh right! Well, our aim is to let writers have fun, giving them a chance to think out of the box."

"We also want to seek out the good writers in our competitions, and reward them with prizes. The prizes for our first competition, also our current one, will be revealed later. Speaking of our first competition…" Valerie trailed off.

Valerie nudged Vanessa, who obviously thought it was unnecessary.

"Ouch! I was just about to start! Uh, well, we're having it right now! This one suits the title 'The Significant Minority' to a 'T'. What you do is **pick any minor scene from any of the 39 Clues books**- yes, all ten of them! **Elaborate on the scene, draw it out**! There's so much you can do with it!"

"You can **re-write the scene** and basically do anything with it as long as you don't leave it the same way it was written in the books. For example, you can **write it from a different point of view, or in a different format**, or even **as a memory from someone** who was somehow affected by it and was reflecting on it," Coline recited.

"You can also **make new scenarios in or with it**, like come up with different scenarios for that scene, or **different outcomes** of it," Vanessa added.

"And any changes **shouldn't affect the rest of the book too much**," Valerie reminded. "Remember, you can just about do anything with it! Be sure to work your creative juices**! If you want to do something with it that you are not sure about, like you don't think it really falls into what we've said**, don't fear! Simply** send a private message to Coline** here-" Coline waved, "-**via the joint account **and she'll answer your message quick as a flash and tell you whether it's accepted."

"So, who's who, and who does what, you ask?" Vanessa continued. "Well, I'm **Vanessa** and I'll **handle the community **under the same name as our group and account, The Significant Minority. I will **add stories which are being submitted as entries to it. If you've submitted your entry, please be sure to mail me via the Significant Minority account to make sure I add it to the community**."

"I'm **Valerie**," Valerie introduced. "I'll be **keeping track of who's joining the competition**. So **if you're joining, please be sure to either leave a review at our story, or mail me via the joint account**. I'll **list down all the people who are joining on the section of the account's profile, just like Vanessa will list down the stories which have been submitted**."

"Well of course I've already introduced myself. For those who've forgotten, I'm **Coline**. I'll be **answering all queries, so either leave a review with your question or mail me via the account. Please do check the FAQ I've prepared on my section of the account before asking your question**, though. Chances are that your question might already have been answered! Our fourth member is Solina, who is holding the cam-"

Solina turned the camera around to face herself and gave an extra toothy smile.

"Right. So anyway," Coline said, "that's **Solina**! She'll be **advertising for this competition**, somewhat, so… yeah. Okay, Solina deserves some air time, so I'll be taking over the camera-"

She hurried up to take the camera from Solina, who quickly stepped next to Valerie and Vanessa.

"Right. I'm **Solina**, as you already know. Be sure to **check out our profile**, since we **update it with news quite a lot**. Of course, if **there's any important news, we will mail all the people who are joining the competition. If there's really, really, important news, we'll post it via this story**. So… what's in it for you if you join? Well, there's **a list of reasons why you should join **on my section of the profile, but we mustn't forget to reveal the prizes here!"

"**If you win, you'll**** become a staff in our community and can be a judge for future competitions**. However, **you can choose if you want to**. **If you accept, you can no longer participate in our competitions**. But if you reject, you won't get a chance to judge for future competitions again- though you can join them- unless you win another time," Valerie explained.

"You'll also be **added to our favourite authors list and your story will be added to our favourite stories list** on our individual accounts as well as on this account. We'll **keep you on alert and make sure to review your other stories with loads of helpful tips and encouragement**. Oh, and we **might just dedicate a fanfic to you**! We'll also **display your name on the joint account's profile** page, so you can get more recognition and stuff," Vanessa finished. "Well, thank you! I hope you con-"

"Ack! Wait!" Coline interrupted. She turned the camera so it was facing her. "Well, we almost forgot the **due date**, didn't we? So… we have decided to give you quite some time… until the **25****th**** of February**! That's about three months, right? Good luck, everyone! We hope you'll join our competition!"

"That was my line," Vanessa grumbled.

**A****/N: Well, we hope you liked it! If you want to join our competition, please review or send a mail to Vale- hey, why should we repeat everything you basically just read? Well… good luck if you're joining (and we hope you do! ;D) and good bye!**

**(Vote on our poll and we'll give you a virtual hug :D OFFER: Vote and get another virtual hug free! With virtual cookies! :D)**


End file.
